For many, riding on Bangalore city's busy and pothole-ridden roads is safer than riding on the city's bylanes because there are chances of being chased down by stray dogs.

For many, riding on Bangalore's busy and pothole-ridden roads is safer than riding on the city's bylanes because there are chances of being chased down by stray dogs.

"Stray dogs in some localities like Nagarbhavi, Prakash Nagar and Gayatri Nagar are very dangerous. They try to hunt bike riders down. We should slow down or stop driving if dogs chase otherwise they will bite," cautioned 28-year-old Mahesh Makapur.

"Stray dogs have become a big problem these days and it is not safe to go to unknown localities. There is a pack of dogs in Swasthi Road, Shanthinagar too and they are dangerous. They even chase cars and bikes," said 24-year-old Ratan Singh, a shop owner on Double Road, Shanthinagar.

Rangaraj, a city taxi driver, said that stray dogs even chase four-wheelers though they can't hurt the passengers. "They (stray dogs) can't harm passengers inside the car but we have to slow down or stop to make sure that the dogs do not get hurt. Imagine if they chase people walking on the streets like that," he said.

A four-and-a-half-year-old rag-picker from Puttenahalli was attacked by stray dogs on Sunday morning. The dogs bit the toddler on his face and mauled him before passersby rescued him and rushed him to a city hospital.

Many cases of dog bites were reported last year and a few of them died but nothing much has been done to solve the problem. The BBMP claimed that Rs. 600 lakh have been spent for the ABC-ARV program in 2011 but interestingly, dog bite incidents have gone up by 20 percent over the last two years.